I’m with the rest of you that are hoping some other network will realize what a gem they really have in Swingtown and get it back on the air. Hell, even a cable network show would be great–and given the ‘censorship’ might even be preferable!

I am considering BOYCOTTING the network entirely (EVEN How I Met Your Mother, which I really like a lot) if this show isn’t given another chance. I don’t care if you keep it on broadcast or shift it to cable as originally intended. But no movies just to tie up story lines, and no more bs half seasons.

Booooooooo to CBS for not giving this excellent program a fighting chance to find a damn audience. Which it would have. I for one have no doubt. I told everyone how good it was, but now they’ll never get to see it.

When are these f-sticks in network TV going to realize that with all the cable and satellite options people have now, not to mention video games and downloadable movies for crying out loud (not even getting into the shocking reality that people don’t always put the rest of their lives on hold for a television show, no matter how good it is) that it takes time to catch on sometimes?

Another of my all time fave shows had a similar first season. Noooobody else I knew watched it. So unclear was the future of this show when it first went into production that the network only ordered a half season. It was sooooooo good that I actually assumed it would be canceled (because that’s what networks do to groundbreaking shows) that I began taping it the third week it was on telly. I continued to do so FOR NINE YEARS. Any guesses? The network: Fox. The show: The X-Files. That’s right. Take note whoever axed S-town. Even The X-Files, one of the best television shows ever created, did not catch on until the second season, and even then it was a bit of a slow burn.

This is the most disastrous first season cancellation since My So Called Life was killed prematurely and we all now how amazing that show was and how much canceling it was such a bonehead dick move.

I want to give a special shout out to the actress who PLAYED Trina. Cudos to you my young woman. Yours was the character I was most intrigued by and the story line I enjoyed the most. Your performances were consistently captivating and delicately and subtly nuanced. You are a gem and I hope you are proud of this achievment. I will miss you the most. Sniff.

I hope we see it come back on another network since CBS has now made their final decision. It initially was going to be on HBO, maybe being on cable where it can be less regulated would be better for us all.

Flipping through the channels one night I saw a promo for SWINGTOWN, I was hooked INSTANTLY. The music, the fashions, the interiors, the hairstyles…. it was wonderful.

I planned my week around it and I didn’t miss an episode and if I did, I watched on CBS.com the following night. It was phenomenal!!

At least one of the writers HAD to have lived the story in “real life”, there’s no way in Hell the writers could pull this out of thin air.

The overall look, feel and quality of the show reminded me of the shows on CBS in the 60s and 70s when they were Number 1 (maybe 2). It’s a shame that the execs from the 60s and 70s can’t come out of retirement (or brought back from the dead) and slap CBS back into shape.

I just purchased the DVD on amazon.com (in another browser window), while I was writing this…. I’m looking to the future when I have Alzheimer’s, so that I can watch the DVD again with fresh eyes and say “Boy, they sure don’t make them like that anymore!”….

Cancellation? I could have understood if the “religious right” put pressure on CBS to cancel the show for displaying the eating of “pot brownies” or the popping of “Quaaludes” like they were tic-tacs or casually have more than two people having sex in the same room at the same time (and not with their spouse) or wife swapping or a key party or that gay sex was accepted…. but as far as I know I hadn’t heard the “religious right” make any fuss (oh, wait, maybe they were too busy doing these things themselves and they didn’t have time to watch).

Hey, CBS, here’s a few ideas for some new quality programming:

The New Misadventures of the Old CBS
Without a Brain
Two and a Half Idiots

SOAPS:
The Old and the Pitiful
The Dumb and the Clueless

REALITY SHOWS:
How to Kill a Network
Execs Gone Wild!
The Amazing White Race

SPIN OFFS:
CSI: Chinatown, NY
CSI: Little Italy, NY
CSI: Boise
CSI: North Miami
CSI: Punxsutawney – Animal Addition
CSI: Chalk Line – Kindergarten Addition
Criminal Minds – Programming Addition
The Mentalist – Brainless Addition

BRING BACK THE GOODS!

Brendan & Jess

Bored Housewife

Please bring back Swingtown!!!!!!

While many people wonder how someone could become so involved in the unfolding drama of fictional characters, I ask, how could you not?

Swingtown, the 70′s set drama that was plump with nostalgia, captivating story lines, sublime acting and exquisite character development has been cancelled.

In the past CBS seems to have been willing to take a chance on several new series with fresh perspective and original ideas, yet time and again, at the first display of resistance or hurdle they cower and surrender faith.

Like so many series before it, CBS pulled the plug on what has and could continue blooming into greatness. I ask what would have happened if networks had cancelled all series that failed (at first) to live up to expectations? Seinfeld, (and ironically Melrose Place), where both extremely close to being cancelled after their first seasons, but they continued, and now appear on almost all “Greatest Television Shows of All Time” lists. The public should have been given more time to catch up to the insight this network had initially shown with this Swingtown project.

I am not a fan of the CSI franchise, and this definitely limits my options where CBS is concerned. What’s next… CSI Chicago? I say this patronizingly, yet the comedy is it could happen.

CBS makes no apologies, but perhaps they should. I believe that they know there were many external factors that influenced viewer ratings, and it had nothing to do with the quality of this show.

I believe that because of CBS’s actions the series seemed to be doomed to fail from its creation. With a lack of advertising and less that desired timeslot I’m amazed that the ratings began as strongly as they did.

Some might argue that the downfall was due to it being sent to summer scheduling (when most people are vacationing outside away from their televisions), but I enjoyed the parallel between its hot season and the actual temperature outside.
I think the problem stems mostly from a sudden switch in weekly scheduling (originally the show aired on Thursday nights but was moved to Friday). I was witness to only one, 10-second clip announcing the change…once it had already been made. If it hadn’t been for my PVR I would not have known where it had gone.
Another way to quickly lose an audience is to, without notice, stray from sequential order. There seems to be nothing worse than being inconvenienced with a repeat only four episodes into a new series. Even an overly acted, completely formulized show like 90210 at least has the courtesy to advise their viewers of when they can expect a new episode at the end of each credit.

I’ve grown up as a voyeur to groundbreaking series that have pushed the envelope, especially in demonstrating sexuality – Sex and the City immediately comes to mind. That being said, I feel that there’s no reason that Swingtown’s modesty affected the series. I found the absence of delivery forced a coy visualization that can be just as effective. However, if resurrection or continuation would have depended on a shift to a more non-controlled cable group (such as Showtime) I’d be all for it.

I sit among the demographic that apparently wasn’t watching Swingtown – yet my group of girlfriends, mother, in-laws and half of my office are self-pronounced addicts of this show.

I wonder if network executives (even the smaller ones) take the time to look beyond the Neilson ratings to count their audience.

Throughout December when researching whether Swingtown would be renewed (before the official announcement) I would scower the Internet for information. The amount of posts articulating concern for the shows future are staggering. Many sites claim a daily post (dating since November) of over 300, while columnists such as Tom Jicha writes “For a show with the low ratings Swingtown had, I’ve gotten an uncommon amount of correspondence about its future”. I even went as far as to listen to the interviews included in the DVD release to get a hint at its future…while Nina Tassler’s (CBS Entertainment President) interview contained many past tense statements – with left me uneasy, the fact that the title of this boxed set was “The Complete First Season” instead of “The Complete Series” left me with a shred of hope for it’s continuation.

This season was prominently displayed on many top ten lists of 2008 (People’s Best of TV 2008 being one) and its re-runs are continually aired on Bravo. The pre-holiday release on DVD was a smart move and for these reasons alone, I’m astounded that CBS seemed to lack the common sense to realize that this new notoriety, airtime, and publicity would only benefit the ratings for the better, hence given this series a second chance.

It’s unfortunate that networks such as CBS seemed to have, over the last ten years, developed a new way of creating excess broadcasting, only to pull the plug on all but a few that don’t in their eyes measure up. It used to be that dedication was attached to the FEW shows they’d develop (full seasons of 20+ episodes filmed, as opposed to a disposal 13 half season). Nurturing a fan base, and their much beloved characters were important. Now it feels to me as though they dangle a promise of something great, then take it away.

Of all of the disappointment I feel none top the inconsideration CBS has shown to its faithful viewers. If mid-way CBS realized that Swingtown was not going to carry on for a second season why wouldn’t they have shot a more tied up finale? The lives of Swingtown will now sit for eternity beside such unanswered questions as, “Did Keith Mars ever win the elusive job of Sheriff”? Or “Will Kevin Girardi regain the use of his legs while Joan tackles the Devil in Arcadia”?

So I appeal to CBS, and all the fans that disagree with the choice of cancelling this amazing show. I ask that CBS please re-consider and attempt to somehow make this right. I’m not sure if my voice will make one bit of difference, but I have to try, and I appeal that you do the same. Please write CBS…hopefully if anything it will help them be more aware of the voices that don’t own a Neilson Ratings Box when making future decisions.

1. STOP putting on, moving, preempting, putting back on shows and expecting them to develop a following. WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO CHASE A SHOW WE LIKE.
PUT IT ON, LEAVE IT ON, AND GIVE IT A MINIMUM OF 10-13 UNINTERRUPTED WEEKS, OR DON’T BOTHER

2. give us a minimum of 26 brand new episodes EVER SINGLE YEAR. We don’t like seeing 13 episodes 4 freakin’ times before we get new ones, AND we don’t like watching 13 episodes twice and then WAITING 6 FREAKIN MONTHS EITHER!

3. CONTINUE NOT GIVING US WHAT WE WANT & WE WILL CONTINUE TO DRIFT AWAY FROM YOU. You WANT our viewership? EARN our viewership.

As has been stated before, the volume of recurring reality & crime dramas is both a sad indication of what the medium is feeding us and/or what is being demanded. Even shows, like Hero’s, that were once provocative and unique can drastically lose focus and rating and still come back when a great show like this gets cancelled.

Make me kind of glad that I decided not to get one of those converter boxes.

I hate you CBS and all of your stupid crime dramas and reality shows. Swingtown was the first show I’ve watched on your network in quite a while. Never again will I watch a show on your network.